We don’t yet have a single medication to really help people
quit cocaine. Maybe that’s the problem, say researchers at Columbia University: no single medication works, but a combination of two different meds might just
do the trick.

Topirimate is an anti seizure medication that has been proven
effective against alcohol and nicotine addiction. It has also shown some
ability to disrupt cocaine addiction, but it works quite slowly - and on its
own, doesn’t work quite well enough.

There is also some evidence that amphetamines, like
modafinil, can ameliorate some of the brain changes caused by cocaine addiction,
like reduced executive control and disrupted reward functioning – but amphetamines
alone have not proven effective in helping people quit cocaine.

But what if you mixed the 2 drugs together?

The Study

The researchers
recruited a group of cocaine addicted people who were looking to get addiction
treatment and divided this group in 2 segments:

For 120 days, half of the study subjects received a combination
of topirimate and amphetamines

For 120 days, the other half of the subjects received a
placebo.

All subjects received addiction treatment psychotherapy

Neither the subjects nor the researchers knew which subjects
were receiving the placebo.

The Results

Subjects getting the medications were twice as likely to achieve
three weeks of continuous abstinence (33%, compared to only 17% of the subjects
who received the placebo).

Subjects getting the topirimate and amphetamines also used
cocaine on significantly fewer days over the study period than subjects
getting only placebo

Commentary

The researchers say the results show the promise of this 2
medication treatment for cocaine addiction and they call for larger clinical
studies to continue to test its efficacy.

Thinking about a home opioid detox? Talk to your doctor before you get started to find out more about a bunch of over the counter and prescription medications that can help to reduce the discomforts of the withdrawal period.
Read Article

Here are 4 excellent reasons to avoid cocaine use while on Suboxone/methadone: cocaine reduces the effectiveness of Suboxone or methadone (which means more opiate withdrawals), increased risk of overdose, poly-drug addiction and resumption of a drug seeking lifestyle.Read Article